It has taken mankind approximately 200,000 years to go from walking on two legs to riding in vehicles operating on roadways and railroads but perfecting passenger transportation combining both into integrated networks with dual purpose vehicles has before now, yet to be perfected.
Homo sapiens walking upright on two legs evolved in Africa over 200,000 years ago and left Africa approximately 70,000 years ago, eventually arriving in the Americas about 15,000 years ago according to an article “Climate change key to world domination” in the New Scientist, 22 Sep. 2012, by Michael Marshall. Cynthia Phillips and Shana Priwer in the WEB site “http//inventors.about.com” article “History of the Wheel”, note that the oldest wheel, a potters wheel, was discovered in ancient Mesopotamia dating back to 3500 BC and the oldest transportation wheel, a chariot wheel, also was found in Mesopotamia dating back to 3200 BC. A “History of Transport and Travel” by Bamber Gascoigne (www.historyworld.net) notes that the oldest known 4-wheeled wagon was actually discovered in what is now Zuick, Switzerland, and dates back to this 3200 BC time period. These authors suggest that the first spoked wheels appear to have come from Egyptian chariots dating back to approximately 2000 BC at which time the horse becomes available in Mesopotamia. And, between 200 BC and 200 AD the great network of Roman Roads were constructed as the arterial system of the Roman Empire. The birth of mobile road vehicle transportation began.
An article, “Outline of Railroad History”, by Mary Bellis (“http//inventors.about.com”), notes that the first roads of wooden rails, called Wagonways, were being used as early as 1550 in Germany for use by horse-drawn wagons and by 1776 iron rails had replaced the wooden rails. In 1789, Englishman William Jessup designed the first flanged wagon wheels, and in 1803 the first steam engine tramway using these wheels was built in Merthyr Tydfil Wales, by Richard Trevithick. In 1821 Englishman Julius Griffiths patented the first passenger road locomotive and in 1825 English inventor, George Stephenson designed the first locomotive pulling passenger cars demonstrating the carrying of 450 passengers. A Wikipedia Encyclopedia reference “Transportation in Toronto” noted that in 1892-1894 James David Edgar created the “Toronto Belt Line Railway” encircling the then core downtown area; although it failed due to being commercially unsuccessful the need for some type of transit system around an urban city was recognized. The birth of railway transportation began.
In the Wired Magazine, March 2008 issued, an article “The bus starts here”, by Randy Alfred, notes that horse-drawn wagons specifically for passengers were horse-drawn buses with the first known public bus line being launched in 1662 by inventor, Blaise Pascal in Paris France although it lasted only some 15 years. A Wikipedia Encyclopedia reference “Bus”, notes that extensive horse-drawn buses reappeared for public transportation in many cities from the 1820's onward and were followed by steam driven buses in 1882 and electric trolley busses by 1882. The birth of carriage trade transportation began.
A Wikipedia Encyclopedia reference “What year was the first car made” notes that the German inventor, Karl Benz, patented the first automobile powered by an Otto-cycle gasoline engine in 1895 though as early as 1890 cars were being built for the public buyers by Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler in Germany and Albert de Dion and Armand Peugeot in France. However mass production of cars for public consumption is credited to the USA inventor, Henry Ford with the first mass produced car the 1908 Model T. The birth of vehicle transportation on roads began.
There have been many attempts to integrate the flanged steel wheels of railway vehicles into the rubber wheeled roadway vehicles. A Wikipedia article on “Road-rail vehicle” notes that although many road-rail vehicles have been designed and road-rail technology dates back to the 1940's by Fairmont Railway Motors and these special purpose vehicles are in common use by railways today for transferring a locomotives by road, and for shunting as well as for track maintenance. However, the same Wikipedia article on “Road Rail buses” notes that many attempts to date to introduce buses and coaches that operate on both roads and rails have never been particularly successful, citing attempts as early as the 1930's in Britain on the Nicky Line by the LMS company and the New South Wales Railways in the 1970's, and by the Deusche Bundersbahn in Germany in the Koblenz area that operated buses outfitted with railway vehicle flanged steel wheels, “bogies”, from the 1950' to the 1970's. An article in “The Transit Coalition” in 2008 asks if it is practical to create a “Bus Rapid Transit” system using dual mode vehicles and cites the Hokkaido Railway Company that since April 2007 continues testing a dual-mode road and rail bus like vehicles for operation on roadways with rubber tires and retractable railway wheels for railway operation. And a similar system, “Blade Runner Dual-mode System” noted in a June 2004 article by Carl Henderson, in “Bus and Coach Buyer” details the work done by his design firm Silvertip Design for the Dept. of Trade and Industry of the British Government and partners. The birth of roadway and railway dual purpose bus began.
The technologies to produce dual-mode vehicles with railway wheels roadway wheels implemented on vehicles are well known. U.S. Pat. No. 2,150,348 reveals a dual-mode vehicle with roadway wheels and railway wheels for operation on roads or railway tracks and U.S. Pat. No. 2,541,514 reveals an improved road and wheel caster system for road and rail dual-mode vehicles. U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,925 described a vehicle for road and rail travel and U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,257 describes a retractable wheel system for road and rail use and U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,465 describes the railway type of wheels for use on a road vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,740 describes an air suspension system for controlling the road and rail wheels while U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,870 describes an air bag lift system to retract the railway wheels on a dual-mode rail and road vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,533 describes a tractor and trailer truck application of such dual-mode vehicles and USPTO patent describes a system wherein the roadway wheels of a dual-mode vehicle are retracted to allow the railway, bogie wheels to engage with the railway tracks as opposed to the lowering of the railway wheels to engage the tracks and U.S. Pat. No. 8,061,277 discloses a design to improve the weight distribution loading on the wheels. U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,629 teaches railway trucks switchable at railway station platforms to roadway vehicles and U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,994 describes the mechanical systems for construction of a hybrid transit corridor and vehicles for transportation of people and goods.
The technologies to produce these dual-mode vehicles with railway wheels and roadway wheels implemented on vehicles for transportation of people are well known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,871 describes a dual-mode transportation system utilizing a suspended mono-rail system carrying a bus having roadway wheels for use when detached from the mono-rail and U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,349 describes a dual-mode transport system in which vehicles are electronically guided on specialized roadways and U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,954 B1 describes a dual-mode system of controlled vehicles while running on a controlled runway and manually operated on regular roads and by the same inventor, U.S. Pat. No. 6,276,542 B1 updates the computerized control of these vehicles while operating on the controlled runway including communications with a central computer system that controls the vehicles on the controlled runway.
The technologies to produce railway retractable wheels implemented on roadway buses are well known. The existing infrastructure of railway lines and roadways in modern cities are well established. The computerized systems to control and schedule the operations of railway vehicles and roadway vehicles and the safety controls and signals for their intersecting crossings are well known. A Nov. 30, 2012 article in the Information Feature section of the Toronto Ontario paper the Globe and Mail stated that the Canadian company “Thales Canada invented today's modern, automated train control technology, Communications-Based Train Control, over 25 years ago and that its products can be found in more than 30 cities around the world. This “brains for trains” technology increases efficiency by 30 to 40 percent.
However, all of the above developments have not had success or acceptance as a viable transportation system in the urban—suburban communities of today's modern major cities. This failure is because these developments have been unable to integrate the supporting road and railway infrastructures into a complete transportation network. A Wikipedia article, Transportation in Toronto noted that the need for an urban transportation system was recognized in the late 1800's with the 1892 construction of the “Belt Line Railway” but failed in 1894.
The disclosures in this patent solve these failures and reveal the components and methods for the creation of a passenger and a goods transportation network system, comprising dual-mode vehicles operating on existing railway lines, and existing roadways, and existing roadway-railway crossings, integrating administration of marshaling operations utilizing modern fuzzy logic computer means scheduling, vehicle and train tracking and movement controlling, and communications systems, thereby forming an operational transportation network system incorporating all these components. The system is an integrated transportation network system for the movement of people and of goods within, across and about an urban city environment. A new transportation network begins.